Starship's Success: A Milestone for Mars Mission
Posted on Jun 17, 2024 at 09:06 PM
In a major development for the prototype system that might someday carry humans to Mars, SpaceX's Starship rocket has successfully completed its first full flight after surviving re-entry.
The roughly 121-meter (400-foot) rocket had blown up or disintegrated on three previous attempts, but this time Starship made a calm descent into the Indian Ocean barely 65 minutes after taking off from the US state of Texas.
"Our first-ever ship landing burn after a launch into space... that was incredible," SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said in a corporate broadcast.
"Despite the loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!" Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, wrote on his social networking platform, X.
“Today was a great day for humanity's future as a spacefaring civilization!” he declared.
At precisely 7:50 a.m. (12:50 GMT), Starship launched from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and travelled halfway around the world before reaching space.
A Landmark Achievement in Space Exploration
The spacecraft descended at a speed of over 26,000 km/h, breaking off during re-entry, and a piece of debris even cracked the camera lens, as seen in a live broadcast. The spaceship was still in good enough shape to send information to its intended splashdown location in the Indian Ocean.
The mission's accomplishment represents a significant turning point in the business's plan to create a reusable rocket, which Musk and NASA hope can carry humanity to the moon and eventually Mars.
NASA has contracted Starship for the Artemis programme, requiring the company to demonstrate its safety in landing astronauts on the moon. NASA chief Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on Starship's successful test flight on the X platform, highlighting progress towards returning humanity to the Moon through Artemis and Mars.
SpaceX is dedicated to conducting real-world tests rather than conducting them in labs. The next hurdle is to create a "fully and immediately reusable orbital heat shield," according to Musk, who promises more experiments as it works to produce a reusable satellite launcher and moon lander.
Eyes on the Moon and Beyond
In an attempt to outdo China's bold goal of sending people to the moon by 2030, NASA intends to use SpaceX's Starship to bring people back to the moon in 2026. Progress has been achieved in China's lunar programme, notably with the mission to recover samples.
The starship's initial launch in April 2023 crashed, its second attempt in November also failed, and its third test flight in March broke apart during atmospheric re-entry 64 km above the Indian Ocean.
Musk predicted $2 billion for Starship development in 2023, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched, standing 397 feet tall and 30 feet in diameter. The Super Heavy booster, 232 feet tall, and 33 Raptor engines produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust, double NASA's Space Launch System's 8.8 million pounds. The 165-foot-tall Starship has six Raptor engines, powered by liquid oxygen and methane, and requires over 10 million pounds of propellant for launch.
This successful test marks a promising step forward in the pursuit of making interplanetary travel a reality, setting the stage for future missions to the moon and Mars.
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